Reviews

“One of this generation’s greatest strategy games has just gotten a whole lot better, and with the recent news that Paradox have committed to another two years’ worth of expansions for this game, God only knows where this game is going to go next.”
9/10 – Strategy Informer

“If you were one of those who whiled away countless hours on Crusader Kings II, you’ll find another addictive and lovingly crafted time sink here.”
9/10 – Thunderbolt Games

About This Content

Europe is in turmoil. The land has been fragmented into petty fiefdoms. The Emperor is struggling with the Pope. The Holy Father declares that all who go to liberate the Holy Land will be freed of their sins.

Now Is the Time For Greatness…

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods is the fourth expansion for the critically praised strategy/RPG. Finally play as a Pagan or Zoroastrian ruler, with particular focus on the dreaded Vikings. Pillage and adventure according to true Viking tradition!

Key Features

Play as a Pagan chieftain and ravage your weak neighbors. If you remain at peace for too long, your people will grow restless...

The new, earliest start date is 867 AD. The Viking Rurik has founded the kingdom of Rus and the Great Heathen Army under the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok rampage through England

Play as a Zoroastrian lord and restore your ancient religion to prominence

Adventurers: Landless characters can gather armies and carve out new realms on their own

Prepared Invasions: Declare your intention to invade and watch your armies grow with adventurers and restless warriors, but don't wait too long to start your war or it might all fall apart...

Rebels with a Cause: Rebels are no longer a faceless menace – they are now led by characters with agendas

Loot and pillage provinces. Burn down cities and take their gold!

Sacrifice to Odin at the great Blot!

Christians and Muslims can dispatch missions to convert the depraved heathens

New beautiful Pagan interface skin

New events and decisions: berserkers, sejdr, curses, omens, divinations, runestones and much more

This DLC reawakened my love of Crusader Kings II. The heathen nations which were being weeded out at the time of the base game are now plentiful and - to be honest - more fun to play. What I didn't realize is that this isn't just about playing as a Viking (though that's definitely a fun place to start). There's a whole world of turmoil to plunge into. And, the feel of the game is different than the base game. Other than Sword of Islam, this is one truly essential DLC to flesh out your CK2 experience.

This DLC allows you to play as Pagans. This means you can now play as.. Vikings, Mongols, Slavs, Zorastrians, Sami, and romuvan. If you have the ruler designer there are also a couple more less fleshed out pagans to play as too. But the real kicker is the ability to play as Norse and the Tengri (Mongols).

This also adds an earlier start date to the game, however the earlier date's value can be debatable. It makes playing a viking much more fun but Europe can look really messy with all the Karlings inheriting Karling land, and it makes all the fun later game stuff like mongols take much longer to happen, which can force a game to end prematurly.

Either way, this DLC is by far the greatest addition to CK2 (at the time of this review Charlemagne has not come out yet, although that still looks like it adds less). Sure, Rajas adds Inida, which is huge, but Old Gods adds so much more, just in playable charectors and situations.

One of the best DLC's for CK2. Adds in a new start date with all the accompanying new tribes and religions. Also revamps the pagans and if you have the DLC let's you play as pagans. If you have to pick what DLC's to get, i suggest you get this one.

best dlc for ck2 ever made as you can play as a LOT more people in the game like the vikings, khan (but screw him, vikings are better) West african tribes and other pagans, ECT. It also adds a new start date where there are more pagans also vikings can sacrifice people in prison

10 out of 10 would reform germanic faith and convert all of christianity all over again

earlier start dateNorse pagans are truly unique and very interstingdynamic changes in game: Pagan ruler conquers Germany... pope starts the time of catholic crusaders early, instantly calls a crusade and holy orders available. This works visa versa as well.

adventures are decent enough, hopefully they will be balanced later. They can be a bit overpowered, but also can be cleared instantly via assassination. Zoroastrian is ok, not sure what people would want there.other pagans are still not unique and only have a little flavour to each.

I don't think I can put into words how great this add-on to Crusader Kings II is but I'm going to try anyway. I fúcking amazing. I love playing as a tribe and also love how the chains that non-pagan religions tie around you freedom are just slashed and thrown away. I love being able to take over a kingdom that you're a part of without needing a casus beli and without a limit as to how many counties you can take over at a time within that kingdom. I love being a pagan and also the vikings. In my opinion, this is the best damn DLC there is for CK II and for some reason I can't really explain, playing as a pagan gives me a sense of freedom and it is just generally more fun and more interesting.

The Old Gods expansion for crusader kings 2 is a must have if you own the base game. it scales back the start date to the 800s when the vikings reigned supreme. Get acccess to norse religion events and other pagans. you can take up to three concubines and go pillaging. Your people will get pissed if you dont declare war enough. This expansion is well worth the sticker price but you can easily find most paradox games go on sale once a quarter if you look in the right place. especially when its been out for a while.

Þorfinn, proud son of a holy union between Odin, a wild mare and three forest gnomes, paid Óleifr handsomely to carve these runes. With his flying longship and its crew of twelve singing rabbits, Þorfinn earned his fame by sailing across the Norse lands solving crime. May the Shining Tentacle preserve us all.

For the price. I'm disappointed. And, because I paid so much for this one, I'm going to wait for the others to drop if I want the Charlemagne (Sp?). All they did for this expansion was to change the borders, change the faces a bit and make the UI look wooden instead of stone - and add the names and start the game 700 years earlier. When I was downloading it, I noticed what a tiny file it was and new right there, I made a mistake. Maybe with a mod to go with this...it will be more of what I was looking for. But for a price over 5 bucks...stay away.